Lady of Shalott has performed exceptionally well in my garden in Southern Finland (about Z4). It is thus far the most vigorous and healthiest of the 7-8 Austin cultivars I have tried here. Even in our cool summers it grows vigorously, and the blooms open despite cold and rain. Does well in a spot with heavy clay soil. No sign whatsoever of disease.

Thanks! This year I have shovel pruned a number of roses due to balling in these wet summers we seem to have to live with: Wasagaming is gone. Claire Austin too. Even Stanwell Perpetual is balling somewhat, but I refuse to get rid of that one. But there is one which has been incredible despite the cold and the rain: Nevada. Not the healthiest but non-stop saucer-sized flowers with no weather problems. Penny Lane is also great and long lasting with great scent. Schloss Ippenburg and Arhur Bell are both said to be tough despite rain as well, and flowers do not drop in a day. Both are on their way here. Unfortunately, it is hard to know what roses really are rain resistant as very few retailers mention it, as few report here in the assessments. Tips are more than welcome.

Prince Jardinier/Schloss Ippenburg:is very healthy, a vigorous plant (up to 1,8 m),has a beautifull form, a very nice fragrance (see the awards), and shows no balling. If that mightn't reason enough to plant it... it lasts long on a vase.Needs some winterprotection and planting the bud union deep enough(appr.8cm)Lichtkönigin Lucia and my Moonlight LCL from Kordes are also very rain resistant.Erinnerung an Brod too.And a real stunner, continuously flowering continuously, despite the rain, is Ingrid Bergman. Also a very good form, fragrant, no balling, excellent vaselife and a vigorous very healthy plant up to 1,8 m in one season.Sharifa Asma behaves well too, relatively small plant, but very winterhardy and exquisite perfume... no balling.As for (not) balling,or good rain resistance: Hot Chocolate is good too! Just like Kronenbourg(Cl.), Scharlachglut and Bolchoï.I hope this helps.

Just maybe HMF can help you view other roses that are said to be "rain tolerant". If you do an ADVANCED SEARCH and click on GROWING and then click on GROWING at the top of the page again to take you to the right section of the pop up, click on RAIN TOLERANT, CONTINUE and SEARCH. You will get about 4 pages of results.

It's not hidden. Site users just have to experiment with the various features on HMF to find the treasure trove of information on HMF.

As a premium member, you can even do ADVANCED SEARCHES on more than one criteria. For example, you can select the rain tolerant characteristic and click CONTINUE, then, if you want, you can select CLASS (click CONTINUE), and then .... lol ... you can select COLOR (click CONTINUE). After you have selected your criteria, then click SEARCH. Having more than one criteria selected narrows the search results. For some searches it is very useful to narrow the search.

The way HMF often finds out if a rose is "rain tolerant", "heat tolerant" and more is often through site users COMMENTS because as you have mentioned in one of your previous posts, this information is generally not published. Please let us know about any other roses where we can add this kind of information.

I honestly believe it is the site users who add incredible value to the HMF database by sharing their experiences with the roses in their gardens.

Thanks Lyn! I have tried all you advised and it is very helpful. But as you rightly mention, a lot of the rain tolerance is never mentioned so I believe a range of varieties will not show up in searches. Let´s hope we get more registered experiences.

The roses I shovel pruned were Wasagaming (for constant balling) and Claire Austin for hopelessly weak flowers that just fell apart in the rain. Stanwell Perpetual is only 'half balling' so to speak so no unambiguous assessment there.

As for the rain resistant roses I have found which were not mentioned in descriptions nor in member ratings are Arthur Bell, Dortmund, Trier and Lavaglut. Nevada was mentioned in the member ratings, just as the other varieties mentioned earlier.

A tip: look at the Member Ratings for a rose You like, and there is a good indication, how rain tolerant a rose is. And if it's mentioned in Member Comments, by members, that live in a wet climate, You might have an indication.

Now I understand. Just so that you know, when you see something in blue on HMF, that is an active link.

For example, if you were to click on the LINEAGE tab for a rose, you would see the names of the roses included in the parentage in blue. You can click on the name of the rose and it will take you to the rose page in the HMF database. This is consistent throughout the HMF databse. So, if you see blue, click it.

Oops ofcourse! I did that so many times before in the lineage, but it never popped up in my mind to click on the blue words above the text... I think I expected Tabs as on main pages, or blocks like there are with reply, delete or add photo. The least I can do, is saying: thank You for explaining.

Southern Finland is drier than Holland or southern Norway, so balling is not a very frequent problem here. At my location the average annual precipitation is only 600-650 mm. Last summer was quite rainy and e.g. Wasagaming struggled to open its flowers. Normally it's fine. Also, we don't have very much black spot here. Only the most sensitive varieties defoliate badly in rainy summers. I had quite bad defoliation in Louise Odier and John Davis last summer.

Well, lucky you! In June and August we had approx. 100 mm and July 150 mm. That is around 50 % of what you get in a year. So, you see rain tolerant roses are a must to at all enjoy them over here. And as the little time we have without rain is best spent doing other things than spraying roses, those that do not cut it have to go. No mercy. :-)

I live in Zone 8, so it was obviously hardy. But it did mildew, which is odd for here. It did not black spot here. I got the impression that this was was bred from Austin types, and probably also descended from something like Flower Carpet Yellow. I found Yellow Submarine and Yellow Brick Road to be superior garden plants. But I am told High Voltage is hardier than those two, which is too bad.

After REALLY searching, this rose is no longer available in Europe. None of the listed nurseries in the US ship this rose to Europe. Fryer's have no reference to it on their website either, despite of its apparent excellent qualities... Hortico appears to be the one remaining option for Europeans.

I know it's a totally different climate, but here in Southern California, this rose wasn't very interesting. Whether or not it was healthy enough, I couldn't say, but the flowers held their color for a few minutes before fading to dishwater. It didn't remain a first line rose here very long, either.

Here on the border of the S.F. Bay Area / Central Valley, Day Breaker has been a chameleon for me. Every spring when it blooms, the colors are somewhat different from the previous year. There have been a couple of times when the color was pale and somewhat drab, but mostly the colors have been more vibrant here. And it has been a healthy rose for me -- even though it's right next to a rose that gets bad mildew and blackspot every spring, my Day Breaker gets only a little mildew in early spring, and almost no blackspot.

You have probably explained the reason why it is no longer easily available, Kim. Got myself a couple of Sheila's Perfume instead for testing a season or two. But I saw this other rose that I really wanted to identify but to no avail. It is sold in the US as 'Surprise'.

Graceful Palace has really delivered this cold and rainy summer. It suddenly decided to grow like crazy and really bloom its heart out. Dark green and healthy leaves, bit sprawling/wide growth, beautiful flowers and a really wonderful raspberry-like scent. It does not like rain though; it balls and the outer petals turn brown and stick to the rose. Self-cleans well, which is rather unusual. Looks much more healthy now as an established rose. Have planted it next to super-healthy and vigorous Diamond Border, which lacks fragrance. They complement well.